Reasoning is exceptionally useful with respect to interpretation of information. Many a time, a business entrepreneur desires to know as to why his company has been facing high labour turnover, he can hire an analyst who will look into labour turnover levels in the past few years ,use this information to produce graphical data of the labour turnover levels and enumerate the reasons for high labour turnover levels. Thus, after assessing the state of affairs the analyst will suggest methods for decreasing labour turnover levels. Information can be qualitatively analyzed by efficient reasoning. Experiments conducted pertaining to physics; chemistry and biology by researchers require effective reasoning to account for observations. Qualitative reasoning allows researchers to infer by extrapolating information from the experimental data .Hence; the power of reasoning by scientists and researchers has lead to new discoveries in the field of science and technology. We can conclude that the power of reason enables humans to make sense of various types of data collected. Thus, it is fair to say that facts, evidence, and logical interpretation of these facts are the language of effective reasoning.
Reason serves as authoritative tool in resolving judicial cases. If there is a dispute or conflict among individuals pertaining to infringement of law these individuals are entitled to resolve this dispute in court. These individuals hire lawyers in order to resolve the dispute in course. Generally a trial involves two types of lawyers – one who supports an individual and another who is against that individual. A common case would be a man being accused of trying to murder another person, .Both these men hire lawyers to support their claims. The ability of the lawyers to gather conclusive evidence and provide lucid explanations, use effective reasoning techniques to the magistrate, the chief judge, who eventually makes a decision on the trial, will have a decisive impact on the magistrate’s decision. Hence; effective reasoning by lawyers plays a major role in deciding the plight of a case. The power of reasoning in court by the lawyer will decide whether the guilty is punished or not.
Reasoning can also be influenced by perception – the way a person perceives a situation. Perception involves the way our senses adjust to circumstances. For example, each student’s interest in a subject is entirely based on the way they perceive the subject. One student may be enthralled by Physics whereas another one might be fascinated by Economics. Perception is thus the primary reason for a difference in the interest of each student. Thus perception forms a pivotal reason for a significant variation in the likes and dislikes of people. But reason based on perception has its flaws as well because reason based on perception is entirely based on the ability of our senses to adjust to a situation and it is based on intuition. We do not practically assess a situation and think over it but we are just swayed by our senses. This is the drawback of reasoning based on perception.
I would like to provide a hypothetical example to illustrate this point. An instance of the drawback of perceptive reasoning – An attractive looking mushroom is growing on a tree. It is actually venomous in nature. A poor farmer walking by the tree spots the mushroom and is enchanted by its beauty as a result of which he takes it home and decides to cook it so that he can consume it. The reason this farmer picked up this mushroom is because it looked great and based on his intuition the farmer felt that it would by delicious. But after consuming the mushroom the farmer fell terribly ill and suffered. This instance clearly reveals the ill effects of perceptive reasoning. The proverb “All that glisters is not gold” means that reasoning based on perception are not necessarily an effective way of reasoning or judging.
This proverb clearly indicates the implications of perceptive reasoning.
Reason can also be linked ineffectively with emotion. Emotion refers to the sentiments which humans experience; emotions enable humans to express their feelings. An epitome of emotion would be the joy and ecstasy experienced by a child when he receives many gifts on his birthday, whereas a contrasting emotion of melancholy would be when a person very dear to someone passes away. Behind every emotion which we experience there is a reason. For instance a child experiences joy while receiving presents on his birthday. But more often than not humans are swayed by emotions. Extremely strong and passionate emotions like love are extremely intricate and complex, making it very difficult to reason. When a person falls in love with another individual he cannot explain the reason for experiencing such sentiments. Thus the power of reason does not play a role in the justification of all types of emotions. Reason mainly plays a pivotal role in interpreting facts, justifying a fact using logical and ethical steps. We can conclude that reason has a limited role in describing our emotions. Sometimes people do crazy things while in love because they are swayed excessively by their emotions of love and they lose all their power of reasoning and common sense.
Lucid explanations and deciphering of facts form the way of expressing reason. A person’s ability to prove a point by means of clear speeches or correct interpretations ideas will decide whether he is right or wrong. If somebody can prove his point clearly and correctly nobody will contradict him. But language can also form a barrier to reason. If someone has a point to prove but cannot explain his ideas clearly nobody will understand his process or reasoning. Thus one has to realize how to present his ideas and subsequently reason in the correct manner.
Reason, thereby serves as an efficient way of knowing as it enables us to think of a situation as a neutral and assess the situation without being swayed by our perceptions and emotion. It enables to us comprehend information and summarize the meaning of the information given to us. But emotion and perception do not generally rely on the power of reason –thereby giving reason a limited role in context with these ways of knowing.
Language can serve as a barrier to effective reasoning if one cannot express his ideas properly. But on the whole, I conclude by saying that reason is perhaps the most important way of knowing as it enables us to think logically and rationally before we choose to do something.
